FYI:
~Personal Thoughts~
ESP
%The Written Word%
[Flashback]
"Normal Conversation (Duh)"
* Com Link or Telephone *
*Sound Effects (usually just Kurt's bamfing)
{Background noise--music, crowds, etc.}
HYDRA
I walked into first period head throbbing slightly. I had slept in and hadn't had time to bug Kitty for a makeover session to cover the black eye. I glanced about the classroom and grinned when I spotted a familiar quiet blonde. "Hey Kirsten."
She looked up surprised and grinned sheepishly. "Hi."
"You're so quiet, I never noticed you were in here yesterday or I would've said something at lunch." She didn't answer but went back to editing her poem. "What's yours about?"
"My family."
"That's cool." I scratched my head realizing she was a case to crack as well. ~What's up with these shy people in Bayville?~
"What happened to your eye?" I frowned as I stared out the window. "Oh, that. Never mind."
"Well, how many of you have completed your poems?" I slowly raised my hand with only about one half of the rest of the class. Mrs. Cowlsill sighed but slowly began calling people up to read their poems. ~I have to read this! Oh no, I didn't bargain for this.~ "Give us your poem's name, inspiration, then please read it. Alright, Kirsten, you're up first."
Kirsten looked like she was ready to cry and run from the room. ~Just a wild guess, but she's not much of a speaker.~ "Um…well…my poem's called 'TLC' and it's about my family." She slowly and quietly read her poem. I don't know if I pitied her or was grateful that most of the class looked like they were sleeping and didn't seem to hear her.
"Good job, now Allison how about you next." I groaned inwardly but placed a confident smile on as I stood before the class. I calmed my nerves so that my hand stopped shaking but realized I couldn't stop my left hand from doing so. ~Guess I screwed those nerves up good with softball. That's what happens when your hand is constantly hit by an eighty miles per hour ball.~ I switched the notebook paper over to my right hand and placed my left one behind my back skillfully covering my nervousness.
I cleared my throat and began reading. "My poem's called 'Everything's Constantly Changing'.
I woke up one day,
Only to see that nothing was as it used to be.
But what can you say,
When everything's gone and done a one-eighty?
Because everything's changing, constantly changing.
The little girl I used to be
Is becoming a lady who wants nothing more
Then to be wild and free,
Yet able to stand and walk upon a stable floor.
It's an innocent request that I make of thee.
The arms once loving
Have become a nightmare that is all too real to me.
And I'm slowly falling,
With no body there to catch me and hold me,
So I continue to fall with no hopes of stopping.
Then out of the blue,
He's right there beside me, reaching out
Saying, "I'll catch you,
And there's no more need for you to doubt."
What scares me most is that he may just be right.
I truly want to believe,
But I've been hurt so many times before
It's hard for me to conceive,
That this isn't a cruel deception or lure.
Why is it so hard to believe in love?
But now I'm falling fast,
And if I don't have faith, I'm going to crash.
Just give me a love to last,
Because I need something to hold on to, as
Everything changes, constantly changes."
"That's very good Miss Williams, but you forgot to mention your inspiration for this piece."
"I…uh…needed to get my homework done?" I shot her a wry smile feeling somewhat embarrassed of the real inspiration that had sat before me all night working on his math homework. Most of the class laughed. I think I'd just given their inspiration rather than my own.
"Think about it a little more. A piece like that has some true inspiration behind it, especially if you wish to get a grade for it. Tell me by the end of the period." I groaned as I sat back down beside Kirsten.
"Can we say blonde hair, football, and a matching black eye?"
"Just shut up. I thought you were the quiet one?"
"I can be…it's just hard to get a word in edgewise between Gail, Jill, and Rose."
"Good point."
"On what? The quiet thing or your inspiration?" She smirked as she shuffled her papers and got ready for the bell to ring. It did and I slowly got to my feet thinking of something that would make for a good inspiration.
"Well, Miss Williams?"
"It's kinda personal."
"That makes it all the better of a poem." I sighed.
"Well, it's this guy I know, he's been there for me in some rough spots and well, he kinda keeps my head above water."
"Well, then I think you've earned your hundred." I released a sigh of relief. "I'd like to ask you something else."
"Um, okay." I tilted my head to the side in confusion. ~What else does she want?~
"Do you keep a journal?"
"No…" ~What's that got to do with anything?~
"I'd think it be a good idea for you to try."
"I don't exactly have that exciting of a life."
"Then use it to express your thoughts and opinions. You're a very good poet, you can write your poems in there as well."
"I'll think about it."
"You do that." She looked back down and went to work grading papers as I walked outta class and was off to the four hundred hall.
CANNONBALL
I stood up and dumped my books into my backpack with a groan. ~I shoulda known there'd be a quiz.~ "Mister Guthrie, I'd like you to stay after class." I sunk back into my seat groaning. "I'm concerned that you're already struggling with this class." Bobby snickered as he ducked outta the room with everyone else. ~No fair, he's struggling just as much as me…~
"I'll try harder…"
"I know you will, but I've also asked someone to help you. If you'll just stay put I'm sure she'll be here in a few minutes." ~Great, I have enough trouble understanding Al and the other girls at the institute. Now I'm getting another girl thrown at me.~ I grumbled as I pulled out my text book again and attempted tonight's homework to no avail.
"Sorry, Mr. Beeninbowgin. It's pretty far from my accounting class."
"That's alright Allison." I looked up to see Al standing in the doorway leaning against it panting slightly. She shot me a grin as she stepped inside. "Do you two already know each other?"
"You could say that."
"Well then, I'll leave you two to work." Mr. Beeninbowgin did leave as Allison dropped her bag and pulled a chair over to straddle the back of as she looked at my book upside down.
"Oooh, FST. Not one of my faves either."
"You don't need to help me." I was slightly flustered that Al had been chosen to tutor me. It was hard enough for me to not trip over my own feet in front of her, now I was going to be tripping over math in front of her.
"No, but I want to. So what part don't you understand?"
"Everything."
"Okay, let's start at the beginning. What's two divided by two."
"One." I was curious by the fact that her first question was too easy.
"Alright, forty-five divided by ninety."
"One half."
"Right. Now all trig is, is doing simple problems like that. You've got to break down the sine and cosine functions into fractions, or division problems." She pointed to a triangle that had loomed evilly before but now made sense. "Now what's the cosine of this angle?"
"Three fourths."
"Right. See it's not that bad."
HYDRA
By Friday Coach had given up on Ren's inability to kick and had let me practice. Actually that had only taken one pitiful practice. I was back in the game by Tuesday afternoon. By Friday, the entire school was pumped and ready for the exciting football game.
"Like you need to eat. You're like the star today."
"Gee, no pressure there." Kitty placed a bowl of oatmeal before me and I kept myself from gagging at it's ghastly green appearance. "What's in this?"
"Oatmeal mix, water, and I accidentally spilled something in off the spice rack." She gave me an innocent grin as ev'ryone else dumped theirs out nonchallantly and got cereal. Kitty had me trapped at the table and I took a ginger bite and carefully chewed then swallowed. It tasted horrible and burned going down. "Everyone's going to be like watching you because you're like the first girl to ever play in a guys' sport since like I don't know when here at Bayville."
"It's not a guys' sport, Kitty."
"Like see, that's why everyone thinks you're like so cool. You like spend all your time knocking down all the unwritten rules." My stomach rumbled hungrily but I couldn't bring myself to try another bite of that green goo.
"Hey, Al, who's wearing your jersey?"
"What?" I spun around in my seat to face Bobby who was leaning back on the counter casually.
"Oh come on, don't play dumb. You know every football player's gotta give their practice jersey to someone to wear."
"Well, I'm not going to."
"It's tradition."
"Traditions are made to be broken at some point."
"Don't you think you've done enough damage in the first week of school?" I sighed. Bobby doesn't ever give up when he's latched onto something.
"And who would you suggest I give it to, to wear?" He raised an eyebrow suggestively. "I'm not giving it to you if that's what you're implying." At that moment, Jamie walked into the kitchen and started digging for his cheerios. "Hey hon, you wanna wear my jersey?" He stood up and gasped at me.
"Are you serious?"
"Sure thing." I reached into my backpack and tossed him my jersey and he eagerly put it on proudly displaying number eleven.
"Way cool, wait 'til everyone sees I'm wearing the only girl's football jersey." He practically skipped back outta the room leaving a scowling Bobby.
"Sorry, but he's a lot cuter then you are, hon." He glared at me and instantly froze the green oatmeal giving me good reason to no longer eat it. ~Well, that just made it worth it.~
At the football field that night, I had to be there early so that I could change before the guys showed up and then hang outside the locker room while they changed. It wasn't the most ideal way of doing things, but I'd live with it for now.
I could make out the band warming up behind the bleachers as we stretched on the field and began warming up. ~Bet Gail's back there tooting her horn.~ Eventually we took to the sidelines as the band took over the field for the pre-game show. I watched as they marched in formation playing different styles of music from oldies to pop to some new-age classical. I was right, Gail was right out there marching with 'em all and shot me a grin as she marched past and off the field.
We lost the coin toss and the other team chose to receive so I was out at the very start of the game. ~No pressure, just the fact that you blow this and you might not get another chance. Like I said, no pressure.~ The kick went straight and far down the field and into the opposite inzone. A panther caught it and started making his way back up the field but was brought back down near the ten-yard line.
Most of the game was spent running on and off making kick offs, field goals, and punts. The first time I kicked a field goal I got slammed into the ground by an enormous line backer and when I stood back up I had to take off the helmet that had worked its way loose. He made a pretty audible gasp as I readjusted the helmet showing off my long hair. I snickered to myself and decided that enormous jock had made my night.
At one point I looked back into the stands where the band was sitting and saw the girls sitting in the top row with Gail who was still in full uniform and was waving her hands madly. I was half afraid she'd toss her trumpet off the back of the bleachers. I grinned as the others held up those small signs each with a letter so that it spelled out WE ¤ AL. I groaned when I realized Chris was holding the heart but had to grin when I saw that Rose and Pete were at the end sitting next to one another holding posters up of a different sort. Rose's depicted a large dog's head and Pete's looked like a personified eagle that was ready to play football. ~Guess she took my suggestion and asked him to hang out with 'em. And leave it to the artists to get that creative.~
BESERKER
"I don't know about you guys, but it's not every girl who can look hot in shoulder pads." I leaned on the fence watching the game.
"Shut up. You think every girl is hot no matter what."
"I think Icepick's gotta problem, how 'bout it Roberto."
"Shoulda seen the way Al blew him off at breakfast this morning. Gave her jersey to Jamie over him."
"Ouch, that's gotta hurt a little." Bobby glared at me and Roberto causing us to both burst into laughter. "Face it man, she digs Sam over you and that's kinda sad."
"Yeah, well, it's about time Sam got a chance. Not everyone can be as charming as I am."
"You're about as charming as an iceberg, Bobby."
CANNONBALL
I waited around after the game for Al to finally be allowed to use the locker room. It wasn't quite fair that she had to be early and late all the time but I wasn't gonna complain when it was her issue. I walked outta the locker room to see one of the girls she'd been hanging around with at school. "Hi Sam." She looked nervous but I didn't blame her since everyone knew who were mutants. "Waiting for Allison?"
"Yeah. What's with the dog head?" She grinned as she flipped the poster around so I could get a better look at the painting of the Husky's head with a blue eye and a green eye.
"It's kinda a joke. She made some comment about a cookie for a puppy, so I've been calling her el perrito."
"That's cool." I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets, which I'd had to replace since well, my old one got ruined.
She shuffled her feet uncomfortably then looked back up at me. "So um…you aren't going to hurt Al, will you?"
"Why would I? Oh, 'cause I'm a mutant that makes me bad, right?"
"Well, it's just that…I dunno. People just don't have much good stuff to say about you guys at the Xavier Institute."
"You do realize Al lives there too."
"She didn't tell me that." She kicked at a rock. "Why couldn't she tell me that?"
"She was probably scared that you and the rest of the school would treat her different, like you treat us."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense. I mean, we've never been friends or anything but then again I was always to scared to talk to one of you guys."
"Hey! Wow, I feel special. Two people waiting around on me." Al came walking up practically bubbling over.
"Good game."
"Yeah, wasn't it? I can't believe how great it is to be playing again." She threw her arms around both our shoulders as she directed us all out into the parking lot. "I see you took my advice and talked to Petey boy."
"Yeah."
"Okay, what's the deal. You just spent the entire game sitting next to the guy you have a huge crush on, and you sound depressed."
"Why didn't you tell me you were a mutant?"
Al turned and glared at me. "Why did Sam tell you that I was?"
"I thought you'd already told her." Al dropped her arms as she stopped walking. Rose and I took a few more steps before turning back. "I'm sorry, Al. I didn't mean to…"
"Step on my toes back there? You're always sorry Sam." I looked down at my feet as she sighed heavily. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I didn't mean to lead you on Rose, think you can forgive me Slim?"
"Uh huh. Nothing else I should know about is there?"
"Don't think so. Unless Sam thinks there's more to add." She grinned at me as she wrapped an arm around my shoulder again nudging me in the ribs.
"Doubt it. I know I'll end up in some serious pain if I talk to much."
"Then start talking Sam, 'cause the good stuff is always followed up with pain." Rose grinned as she got a small jab to the ribcage.
"I dunno about this. I think I'm gonna have to split you two up." Rose stuck out her tongue and dodged away before she could get another elbowing.
"See you guys Monday!"
"She took that pretty well."
"Yeah, I was hoping she would." She watched as the other girl left and grinned. "You guys need to learn how to talk about this mutant thing on a girl level. All you gotta do is ask if they'd still like their crush if they found out they were a mutant and presto! they're cool with mutants."
"You're crazy."
"I won't deny it. I'm still surprised the little doctors in white jackets haven't come for me yet."
"What little doctors?"
"Read Insomnia sometime. You'll understand then."